The local application of 0.25% or 0.4% HA before the induction of a measured laser injury on the rat uterine horn was associated with a significant reduction (P less than 0.05) in postoperative IP adhesions when compared with the group of animals pretreated with the diluent vehicle PBS or received no pretreatment. However, 0.4% HA, when applied in a similar manner, was ineffective in reducing reformation of adhesions after microsurgical adhesiolysis.